


All I Can Do

by deliriumrace



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-16
Updated: 2016-10-16
Packaged: 2018-08-22 18:14:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8295319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deliriumrace/pseuds/deliriumrace
Summary: Kat finds herself thrust into village life watching over a class of shinobi in training. Punishment for a mission gone wrong. If that wasn't enough, she is forced into the real life of someone she knows only behind the mask and he is less than happy about it.She is pretty sure this will be her hardest mission ever.





	

I was trapped in a tornado of kicking, grabbing, slapping and scratching hands and feet. I am pretty sure someone is trying to ripe the hair out of my head. At least, I think that is the intent of the girl on my sholders and if the sharp pain on my scalp and the way my head is bobbing up and down like a fishing lure lost on a raging sea, is any indication, then I am probably guessing in the right direction. I really hate getting my hair pulled. It is a close second on my list of annoying little tortures, number one belongs to getting my ribs broken. When I am not in this ridiculous henge, my hair is quite short but in my current skin, well I guess, I will have to deal.

The cacophony is escalating and suddenly seems to erupt anew in my sensitive ears. A crazy mixture of high pitched screaming, whining, and overall preteen adolescent girl angst but now a new barking sound is coming through. Oh well, it can't get much louder.

Normally, I would have enjoyed a scene such as this and probably would have gotten a good laugh out of it, at someone else's expense of course, but not today. Today, I find my sorry ass firmly rooted in the middle of this raging pack of female hormones. 

How the hell did things go so wrong? I whine internally and if not for the wench on my sholders I would have shook my head. I suppose the answer lies somewhere in the days leading up to this embarrassing mess I now find myself in. 

"Katsu, you brat get in here." The very exasperated voice of my guardian bellowed. 

"Yes, Tsunade-sama. Is something wrong?" I reply in a sickly sweet fashion while batting my eyelashes. I knew my antics combined with my last mission would get me signed up for some horrible form of torture but I couldn't help it. She shot me a look that could kill and I knew she would probably deliver on it. I really can't control myself sometimes. I love to see her eye start to twitch and her mask start to slip. I need to get a handle on that bad habit of mine and quickly.

"What the hell were you thinking bringing that noble's children to such a place? You do understand that children do not belong in a betting house? Not to mention the blatant disregard of my orders to not engage and only gather information passively. What the hell possessed you to think that using civilian children...the clients children no less as a bargaining chip?! " She pretty much spit these thoughts out at my face and I had to stifle the urge to wipe them off. It would seem, based on the smell, my master had decided to drown my perceived inadequacies in large quantities of sake. I was definitely in trouble seeing as it was still early in the day.

"Well, I have spent most of mine in one....and it seemed the easiest..." I did not get to finish this ill timed retort as I found myself flying across the room after my master's finger flicked my forehead. God dam! that stupid woman was strong. I mean really what do I know about children. It's not like I hang out with the little snot factories.

I picked myself up off the floor and dusted remnants of wall off of my favorite black cloak, while shooting proverbial daggers from my eyes at her head. It was then I noticed my master looked a little worse for wear. Her blonde hair normally secured in twin tails over her shoulders was disheveled and stuck out in funny tuffs. Her normally neat outfit looked rumpled. 

"I had to make amends for your stupidity!" She growled "I was forced to apologize and bow to those nobles for hours to ensure payment. Luckily, that information was worth it." Tsunade said this as if noticing my thoughts about her disheveled appearance. "You are lucky they didn't withhold any of the money or you would still be crawling out of the crater your carcass would've made from my fists meeting your block head!" All this said before taking a swig from her bottle. 

I just glared at her but kept my mouth closed and plotted all my escape routes from my location in the room. Ten paces to the window, eight to the door both would require coming within her striking range. I have learned the hard way that Tsunade's outlook on my luck does not always hold true and I could find myself in that crater anyway. 

Especially, if my loose cannon of a mouth were to open and perhaps tell her to go to one of the seven hells because babysitting brats while gathering information in hostile territory wasn't part of my job description. Well at least not in this missions objectives. Besides she was the one who decided it was a good place to rendezvous. I had no idea she expected me to drop the brats off beforehand or not use them to my advantage. I wouldn't have actually sold them. Well not on purpose anyway and I would have got them back if I did, I swear.  
It was at this moment, she grinned, a big shit-eating kinda smile. The kind of smile that gave a little glimpse of my misery to come and spoke to the immense pleasure she would take in it. Fuck! was the only adequate sentiment my brain could come up with.

"You are in need of some special training." She smirked. A cackle of evil laughter trailing behind her as she turned and walked away.

One three day disaster mission and another two traveling days later, I found myself dumped in an Academy class in the village of Konoha which I admit should not be a big deal for a fifteen-year-old girl, but I am really far from normal. 

On my arrival to Konoha, I 'poofed' into the mission room for lack of a better word. I suppose technically I should call it a transportation jutsu but what can I say, I like poofed. It is much more descriptive considering the noise it makes and all the fun smoke. It is rare that I return to the village when I finish a mission and even more rare that I find myself in any sort of public venue to report but this is what was requested of me by the Hokage. 

The hour is quite late and only one mission room clerk sits near the Hokage's desk and a few jounin are scattered around the seating area at the opposite side of the room. Every eye is immediately turned in my direction and hands reflexively reach for weapon pouches and fingers twitch in anticipation of forming seals. I am one of the only nins allowed to 'poof ' this close to the Hokage and therefore it makes the elite shinobi milling around a little tense. They are all bat shit crazy, so I prepare to dodge any stray kunai, senbon or jutsu sent my way. Luckily, the ANBU guards on duty make their presence known by merely allowing some chakra to be felt by all and since they don't take my head on the spot everyone else seems to calm down.

"Kuro, I have been expecting you. Are you well?" The Third says in a quiet, kindly tone. He is a wise old man and I can never get over the kindness in his eyes despite the fact he could kill me 50 different ways with his pinky finger.

"I am sorry to have kept you waiting Hokage-sama. Some unexpected and very young guests were invited to the party at the last minute and they needed to be entertained. It was quite the circus. Otherwise, I am doing well." I said while bowing my head and answering his loaded question with my own loaded answer. 

The Third lifts his eyebrow very slightly and fiddles with his unlit pipe. I assume he is well aware of my high strung mood and of the message 'underneath' my reply. He is probably trying to determine if I should be hauled off to the head-nins before I go and break on him or if he can cut me loose to deal with the aftermath myself. I politely hand over my scroll with all of the details.

The mission had gone off kilter towards the tail end. The time in a mission when most of the unsavory tasks are in need of being carried out and changes in the plan usually end up being bloody. It almost never goes wrong in the beginning when problems can be dealt with more cleanly. 

I had spent a day gathering information and was to eliminate my target during a dinner party the next night assuming the intel warranted that a message needed to be sent. Otherwise, just a quick elimination would do. My luck being what it is, a message kill it turned out to be. Unfortunately, the gods were not looking out for me that night and the dinner party was more like a kid's birthday party. The target and several children were killed in the explosion of the tags I placed in the room earlier while gathering information. It literally rained blood for a moment after the blast. 

Could I have stopped the explosion? The disgusting answer is yes but I pulled my seal tight and cut off all the humanity I possess and to be honest, I don't seem to have much or that's what I've been told. I became just a weapon that struck it's intended target and the unintended casualties added to the message my mission required I send. I turned my back to the screaming, wailing children and made my way to Konoha. I am a weapon. I am a killer. I am a hunter. I am a monster. 

"Please drop the henge Kuro. You are safe enough here that two masks are not required." He continued to fiddle with his pipe and raised his hand slowly to put it reassuringly on my shoulder. "Remember we discussed that you need to be seen more in the village. You are a symbol of our safety." This was said so quietly that only I would hear him.

"If it is what you command Hokage-sama." My mind screams, please not this, anything else but not this and not right now! I need to hide the monster, the darkness and the blood that I feel on my hands. My mind is about to explode and I dig my nails into my palms hard enough to draw blood but I am trained to keep my heartbeat, chakra and movements even and smooth in the most difficult and life threatening situations. My panicked thoughts will probably go unnoticed by all of the shinobi in the room but the Third always seems to know when I am losing myself. I suppose he has lots of practice identifying the signs of a shinobi about to go over the edge of insanity while dealing with all the bat shit crazy jounin.

Fighting my instinct to stay hidden behind the henge with every fiber of my body, I release the jutsu. The Third looks me in the eye, well he would be if not for the mask, and reassuringly squeezes my shoulder.  
"Now, there is the black hunter." He again said this only for me to hear and he smiled brightly.  
"Yes, Hokage-sama. I am a proud hunter and protector of the Leaf." I managed to say this without my voice shaking even though I feel exposed because this is my duty, it is all I know and it is who I am. My body starts to relax.

"Good hunting Captain . I expect you in my office early tomorrow, we have much to discuss." Sandiame is speaking more loudly now which makes me cringe. I just want to creep out of here unseen but the Third seems to be getting the gossip hounds hungry and wants them running at the mouth. He has always used the gossips to his advantage and he probably wants them to pique the interest of Konoha's shinobi with news of the new Hunter Captain.

"Yes, Hokage-sama." If not for all the not so sneaky glimpses the jounin may have convinced even me that they weren't interested in what was going on.

"If you need anything you know where to find me." He said this quietly with a kind smile and a wink. I have known him for years and have never once asked for anything. All I ever need is what my next mission tells me I need. I just nod because I am not really sure what to say to that. I take my leave. Tomorrow would bring whatever punishment Tsunade had cooked up for me and it was going to suck.

#########################

Maning the mission desk late shift is something Iruka does quite regularly. It is typically quiet once the hour passes nine or ten in the evening as most missions completed close to home have been handed in by now. A few stragglers show up sometimes and usually higher ranked missions either get reported to the Hokage directly or to the mission desk in the morning. He likes the quiet and is able to sort and file the backlog of reports from earlier in the day but not tonight. Tonight the Hokage is here which is highly unusual and it has drawn in a crowd. The atmosphere is one of anticipation and it is making him feel a little on edge.

He almost jumps out of his skin when a woman in a black cloak with a hood covering her head pops into the room near Sandiame-sama. In the few moments it takes him to ready his mind for a fight it is over and ANBU has made it clear no threat is present. He is now very curious who this woman is. He assumes she is a leaf shinobi but he sees no indication of any village insignia on her clothing. She must be important if the Hokage is waiting for her. 

Iruka could only hear what the two allowed the room to overhear even though he was so close to them. He was just getting his curiosity under control when the woman dropped her henge and in her place stood the black hunter. She was petite and appeared quite young, definitely not the woman her henge portrayed. Her stance and presence were large despite her size and lived up to the stories he had heard. She wore all black, mostly leathers with two wickedly sharp looking swords on her back and a small cross bow on her hip. Her appearance was not that of a typical shinobi which lends truth to some of the rumors that she is not originally from the Leaf or even another hidden village. As she turns to leave he catches a glimpse of the dragon tattoo at the back of her neck. It is the lead Hunter's mark. She really has taken over comand of the hunter squad.

He can't help but think how young she is to be shouldering such responsibilities. A frown finds its way to his face as she walks by. Children should be allowed some childhood, some time of innocence.  
"Iruka, walk with this old man." Iruka realizes the room had emptied out while he was contemplating childhood and it was time to go.

"Of course, Sandiame-sama." 

"What do you make of Kuro?" Iruka has spent many hours in the company of this man. He is like an anchor for Iruka, he helped to keep him together when his young life was ripped apart. Sandiame knows of his love for children. He was the one who guided Iruka to take up the post of an Academy teacher. The question is not idle conversation.

"I am sure she is quite capable Sir." 

He chuckles at that. "Iruka, I am sure that is not what you really want to say. I will say it, if you are not going to. She is young, very young and more than capable. Do you disagree that her abilities should be used to thier full advantage?"

Iruka rubs the scar that crosses his nose. "She is young, Sir and I do mourn for the loss of her childhood but I know her sacrifice must have been weighed quite heavily before it was asked of her. I think we will see real benefits from the children being at the Academy for a longer period of time. It will hopefully make them more emotionally stable and grounded in the basics which will lead to longer lives."

"You don't have to convince me Sensei." He outright laughs and pats Iruka's shoulder. "I already passed that one into the academy sanctions." His demeaner sobers. "Kuro has indeed been asked to sacrifice much for the village and I fear we did not consider what all the consequences would be."

###################

The next morning I find myself sitting on the windowsill never quite managing to get to sleep the night before. I am shinobi so nightmares and regrets are inevitable but that is not what keeps me from my bed. Memories, the good, the bad and the ugly swirl in my head when I fall into slumber. Snippets of conversations, images of people, places and of battles along with all the confusing emotions that go with them keep me awake.

Tsunade is already at the Hokage office when I arrive. "Hey brat, I see you finally made it." 

I glare. "Where is Sandiame-sama?" 

"He will be here shortly but don't kid yourself that he will save you from this." She smirked. "Consider this my last lesson for you, Kat. I have no more to teach." My head snapped up to her at those words. She was smiling at me and she called my nickname. It was strange normally she yelled and then the meaning of her words sank in. She was no longer my teacher, not because she gave up but because we were now closer to equals.

"Thank you, for everything." I struggle to find something else to say but Sandiame-sama walks into the room and proceeds to kick Tsunade out of his chair saving me from having to say any more. 

"It seems Tsunade has started the meeting without me." He gives her an an exasperated but fond glare. "Katsu, you will be staying much closer to the village for a time and it has been brought to my attention you lack an understanding of shall we say, community living. I have a solution that kills two birds with one stone. You will report to the academy as a new student and watch over a particular class. Details are in the scroll."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

Tsunade starts to chuckle. "You missed the best part Hokage-sama. Kat you will be staying with a roommate. You are expected to acclimate to living around others. Don't give me that look, you brat. After classes go to this address and hand your new roommate this scroll. Good luck." She hands me two scrolls wearing that scary smile again. I get this sinking feeling in my stomach that this roommate business will be trouble.

So, end the flashback and cue the present. An academy classroom in chaos with my sorry ass in the middle of it. The teacher, Iruka-sensei is now at the door barking orders for the fighting to stop. A few of the girls back down but he has to stun the rest including the one on my shoulders. I think her name is Ino. All involved are now lined up in the front of the class. Kinda like an execution which is not helping me to repress my survival instincts.

"What is going on in here? I leave for 10 minutes and you decide to attack your new classmate?"

 

The day can't get any worse. Oh, but it can. I haven't met my roommate yet.


End file.
